Friday, July 1, 2016

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the last of June

Friday

Leftovers for 1 (chili, bread and vanilla-rhubarb butter, tossed salad, carrots sticks and peanuts), dinner out with GF for son, and my daughters and I had a girls night out at Five Guys. Totally out of character for us, but we enjoyed it immensely.

Roasted chicken leg quarters (the ones I bought for 49 cents/lb in 10-lb bag at Albertson's), canned tomatoes, salsa, black olives and seasoned with a mix of chili powder, oregano, garlic powder and salt, over
Brown rice
Sauteed kale, from garden, in saved ham fat from freezer
Fresh berries from the garden

Monday

Chicken and rice enchiladas (using the chicken left on the bones from the night before, mixed with leftover rice, for the filling, topped with scratch enchilada sauce from Belinda's site, topped with cheese and olives)
Green salad from garden, with homemade vinaigrette
Blackberry-rhubarb gelatin, using bulk gelatin, sugar, and wild blackberries, garden rhubarb

I finally tackled that 10-lb bag of frozen chicken leg quarters. I broke it up into 4 portions, each portion has 2 leg quarters, which is about right for making something like enchiladas, or chicken in a sauce over rice.

And you'll notice that 3 of us actually ate out in a restaurant this past week. I was needing a girls' night out, my husband would not be home till almost 10 and my son was gone for the evening. So just us girls went to Five Guys. It was good, yeah, but I'm okay if we don't do that again soon. Two days later, us girls had more time together during the afternoon, and that time, we chose to bring sandwiches to the beach, along with iced tea, for an al fresco lunch by the Sound. And honestly, I enjoyed that just as much as the burgers and fries from Five Guys. Every so often, I need to stick my toes in the water to see if I'd like to go in. (That's me, every once in a while, eating out just to see what I am or am not missing.) Anyways, I didn't have to cook that night. Yay!

Also, still a lot of eggs and beans. I've come to really enjoy preparing eggs for suppers, as I don't have to think too far in advance, the way I do if I need to thaw meat or soak beans. And my family doesn't seem to mind all of the egg meals. So, alls good with that.

6 comments:

Hi Lili,I'm thankful it's Friday...it's been a very rough week. We are relocating our boarder today. She walks through the house with muddy shoes without a thought of taking the running shoes off before entering even with a reminder. Coming home at 2:30 am, leaving lights on, not paying rent and so many other disrespectful things. I found an apartment on her campus for cheap, I'm giving her food to take along, but it will be better for her there.

Work has been rough with people not doing their jobs and blaming me because they would have liked me to remind them to do their work. I'm not their boss, I don't know their job nor when they have to do certain things and any adult working their job should perhaps have checklists or something if they need help meet deadlines. Do not blame others when you cannot do your job. Enough rants.

I have no idea what we ate each day this week. It has been a blur. I know we had grilled chicken breast on Sunday that was tough and tasteless even though I marinated it and seasoned it. So on Monday they became tortilla filling that still wasn't wonderful. Tues. pizza from one of the kids' work, Wed. was teriyaki noodle bowls, Thursday was brats, baked beans and french fries. I guess I did know what we ate!

My refrigerator is pretty empty so I have to fill it up tonight or tomorrow. Then I get a long weekend and I'm taking Tues. off.

My oldest daughter (the teacher) had her teaching job eliminated for next year (she's a Spanish Teacher) so she is going to teach in Honduras for the next two years. We have about 7 weeks to get ready for that and then to have a little farewell party.

Oh, gosh, Alice, you've had quite the week. A long weekend is just what you need. And that is wonderful that you're taking an extra day off, too. So many changes for you and your family. Good luck helping your daughter get everything ready to leave for Honduras. That will be quite an experience for her.

Considering the week you had, you were still able to pull off dinner all week! Kudos to you!

Have a wonderful, long weekend, Alice! Enjoy some time on the bench overlooking your garden.

Your dinners were so balanced and had so many flavors. How do you balance both nutrition and taste so well? :)

This week, we cooked even less than last week. After my husband made a potful of mashed potatoes (Costco dry mix) to be frozen in individual portions for dad, I used the "dirty" pot to make corn chowder, scrubbing the dried mash from its sides as I stirred. I didn't have any fresh potatoes in the house, so the residual was just enough potato to flavor and thicken the soup. I had to use up two past dated cans of cream style corn, so that made enough for several nights dinner. Since we've been working on the pantry area all week, I found other items that needed using up, so last night my husband made a pesto pasta dish with past dated whole wheat spaghetti. We also ate a lot from the freezer this week, and made our usual vegetable side dishes. Still eating a lot of cucumbers every day. Fresh cucumbers taste sweet and refreshing, so much better than market ones which now seem flat and unflavorful like standing water. Is it the particular variety or because of freshness?

I was down 3 (& some days 4) big people this week. That meant dinner was a throw together affair most nights and we still had leftovers. Weird. It'll be back in the saddle for me for meal planning this coming week. I felt "off" all week without much of a meal plan. Great work, as always, Lili. Melissa

It's nice that you had some time with you daughters this week to relax. With everyone's busy schedule, it must be hard to find a time to do that. And while Five Guys was pretty good, but not fantastic, I'm sure the fact that you didn't have to prepare the meal added enjoyment to the experience. I know it does for me sometimes.

A lot of eggs, lol. For breakfast anyway. Several bean dishes as well. Just making do with what we have here, nothing too exciting. You dinner out sounds good. Five Guys makes good fries and they are so generous.